Review: The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching: Transforming Suffering into Peace, Joy, and Liberation

This is an excellent book to read to understand the core fundamentals of Buddhism. It covers the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path, in a good amount of detail. It also goes further than that, drawing on key concepts which are common to most variants of Buddhism.

I liked the fact on how Thich Nhat Hanh emphasizes the need for depth in life - developing it by living the values, the Buddha taught and practised. Mindfulness is expectedly a strong theme throughout the book.

The only aspect which could have been better is that while many sections do have good anecdotes from either Thich N hat Hanh's own life or the Buddha's, there are a few sections which are entirely theoretical and dry. Hence, while reading a portion of a book, it feels like simply reading the obvious.

Overall, an excellent introductory book to the essence of the Buddha's teachings, and well worth a read.